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M A R T E N. 



house at the bottom of the hill. The contest then 

 lasted tor more than halt' an hour, and both combat- 

 ants were too intent on each other's destruction 

 to shun or fear observation. At last, however, the 

 tnarten succeeded in falling upon the right side of 

 the cat's neck, and jerking his long body over her, so 

 as to be out of the reach of her claws ; when, after a 

 good deal of squeaking and struggling, by which the 

 enemy could not be shaken oft 1 , the martial achieve- 

 ments of puss were ended in the field of glory." 



The conduct of this warfare is not unworthy of 

 attention, and therefore we should quote a few lines 

 descriptive of it from the same work. " The onset is 

 one of some skill on both sides. The aim of the cat 

 is to pounce with her paws upon the head of the 

 marten in such a way as that the claws may destroy 

 or wound its eyes, while her teeth are imbedded in 

 its neck ; and if she can accomplish that, the fate of 

 the marten is decided. That, however, if done at 

 all, must be done in a moment, and if it be lost, there 

 is no repairing the mistake. The spring of the wild 

 cat is larger than that of her opponent, and the cat 

 takes up her position so that she shall, if possible, 

 alight upon his head with her full spring and impetus. 

 To distract her attention, he keeps moving his head 

 from side to side, and if he succeeds in this object, he 

 rushes to close quarters by a side-movement. If 

 the spring of the cat takes proper effect, there is a 

 struggle, but not of long duration ; and it is the same 

 with the opposite result, if the cat miss and the marten 

 fasten, during the short pause of exhaustion after the 

 spring. Here we may notice another curious feature 

 in the economy of the feline race. It has been re- 

 marked of even the most powerful of them, that if 

 they miss their object when they spring, they sneak 

 cowardly away, and do not return to the attack for some 

 time, if indeed they return at all. Now the fact is, that 

 it is not cowardice, but exhaustion. The gnashing with 

 the teeth and the talons seems to be the reaction by 

 which the motion of the spring is balanced, and the 

 tone of the animal kept up ; and if it fail in that, it 

 takes a while to recover the use of its springing 

 muscles. Probably the violence both of the spring 

 and the exhaustion are connected in some way or 

 other with the electric state of the body, but that is 

 a point not easily to be settled. Should both miss, 

 the contest is renewed, and seldom, in the observed 

 cases (which are not indeed very numerous), given 

 up until the one be killed ; and in the protracted 

 contest the marten is always the victor, as the cat is 

 first exhausted by the greater weight of her body and 

 the violence of her leaps." 



Interesting as the martens are, and common as 

 they are in most parts of Europe, their natural history 

 is by no means clear and satisfactory. As to their 

 manners, indeed, and their anatomical structure, 

 which is of course the foundation of those manners, 

 there can be neither mistake nor difficulty ; for they 

 are so perfectly alike in these respects, that it is of 

 no consequence upon which of them, if indeed there 

 are really more than one, the description is founded. 

 The usual distinctions are, the common or pine 

 marten, which is found only in close forests, and 

 nestles in the holes of trees ; and the beech marten, 

 which is found in more cultivated places, and nearer 

 the habitations of man, which it sometimes plunders 

 in a similar manner to the polecats. 



It should seem, however, that these names are not 

 only local, but that they are interchanged with each 



other in the different localities in which they predo* 

 minate, the one in one locality, and the other in 

 another. Thus, the common marten of the warmer 

 parts of Europe, and, generally speaking, of England, 

 if we except some of the wooded mountains toward 

 the north, is really the beech marten, which is the 

 only marten of these localities. On the other hand, 

 if we go to the forests on the Scotch hills, or to those 

 of the North of Europe, or of Asia, we find that die 

 pine marten is not only the common marten, but 

 almost the only species that is met with. When 

 found in the forest, the marten is of rather larger 

 growth than when found in open and lowland places; 

 which shows that those wild localities agree best with 

 its nature. As is the case with all animals that in- 

 habit more upland, and are of course exposed to a 

 lower temperature, the fur of the marten, when in- 

 habiting the wild woods, is closer and firmer than 

 when it inhabits warm situations. It seems, indeed, 

 that these animals are affected in their size and colour 

 by even moderate differences of climate. The martens 

 of Siberia differ a good deal from those of Europe, 

 and we might be prepared to expect this, from the 

 great difference between the summer and winter in 

 Siberia. But then, the Siberian ones differ from each 

 other as much as either of them differs from the 

 European ; and when we turn our attention to the 

 same species in the North of America, where it is 

 particularly abundant, we find similar differences 

 occurring. 



It has sometimes been supposed that the different 

 tint of the pale colour on the throat and breast of the 

 marten constituted a different variety, if not a dif- 

 ferent species. This, however, is exceedingly doubt- 

 ful ; for there are in all countries which martens in- 

 habit some with the breast inclining more to white, 

 and others with it inclining more to yellow. This 

 difference, too, is always accompanied with a different 

 shade in the darker part of the fur. If the throat and 

 breast have a pretty deep yellowish tinge, the fur on 

 the upper part is always of a deeper and richer brown 

 colour. This, we believe, happens most frequently 

 among those which do not quit the forests, but live 

 in the shades of trees ; and perhaps we might expect 

 it, from the more uniform temperature of the day and 

 the night in such places. The shade, and the con- 

 stant evaporation which is going on in a forest during 

 the day, both tend to keep it cool, and the evapora- 

 tion keeps the air immediately over a forest and 

 between the trees more saturated with moisture, and 

 therefore nearer the dew point than the air is over a 

 plain. By this means the nocturnal evaporation of a 

 forest is less in proportion to the diurnal than that of 

 an open plain, and consequently the night is warmer. 

 Indeed, as the marten remains quiescent for at least 

 great part of the day, except when hunger forces it 

 out, and as even then it preys chiefly or exclusively 

 in the shade of the branches and leaves, the marten 

 enjoys a pretty uniform temperature during the 

 twenty-four hours. We have often had occasion to 

 remark, that there is nothing which tends more to 

 the general health of an animal, and the preventing 

 of wear and tear in its system, than a uniform tem- 

 perature ; and this, as we have now explained how it 

 is brought about in the forest, seems to be the prin- 

 cipal reason why in the marten there is, both in its ap- 

 pearance and its fur, a superior animal to the marten 

 of the open plains ; and this, when duly considered, 

 appears sufficiently to account for all the differences 



